Tamils usually talk of the many grievances and the discrimination they suffer in our society without specifying them and labelling such inequities suffered to be due solely to the fact that they happen to be Tamils. If one digs deep enough into any such grievance, it would be soon apparent that such a grievance would be common to all our deprived citizens, no matter whether they were Tamils, Sinhalese, Muslims or any other. Mr. Ludduwahetty and many others have pointed this out in many of their writings in The Island newspaper.

Let me accept the fact that there are bigoted people among all ethnic groups and that such persons could resort to discriminatory actions against other ethnic groups. This is true of the LTTE who recently killed the Sinhala mango traders in Vavuniya, as well as the Sinhala mobsters who attacked the Tamil shops in Galle.

It is also the fact that while the LTTE’s aversion to anything Sinhala remains untamed, the Sinhala mob in Galle was soon brought under control and would have faced the bullets of the Police and the Army had they continued their pillage. What I mean to underline here is that the Sri Lankan society under the control of the government does not overtly or covertly practice discrimination against any ethnic group in our society. The actions of the criminal elements in our society against the Tamils cannot be ascribed to the rest of the population as has been done often by the Tamil writers and commentators.

However, let me list the main genuine grievances of the Tamils because they are Tamils, and suffered by them almost daily, but dare not complain, lest they be slaughtered before daybreak by the LTTE.

Many Tamil children have their future blighted by being coerced into the LTTE fighting units. They are waylaid on their way to schools, on their way to temples, on their way to tuition classes. They are dragged out from their homes, they are abducted from the playgrounds. Any protesting parent is simply shot, or, if he is lucky, severely beaten up and left for dead.

Once in the LTTE camps, these children do not engage in reading, writing and arithmetic (the 3Rs), like other Tamil children in Kotahena, Colombo. They are put though a rigorous mind bending programme of anti-Sinhalese propaganda; and forced into military and weapons training. They are simply trained to kill or be killed.

This is the biggest and the most heinous criminal discrimination suffered by the Tamils because they are Tamils. The victims dare not and do not have the opportunity to complain. The many Tamil leaders in our society such as the authorities of the Churches, Hindu Kovils, Tamil business leaders and Tamil politicians (except a few) have deliberately selected to remain silent on this heart rending issue of future Tamil generation.

Would the BBC’s Miss. Luthra interview the teenage children who recently escaped from the LTTE’s camp and allow them the space to tell the world the unforgiveable murderous life enforced on them by the LTTE?

Who is responsible for this unacceptable inequity? It is the LTTE and Pirapakaran himself. His crime is all the more wicked given his son has been sent to Northern Ireland to study at Belfast University. One hopes, that at least he will learn there that the dreaded IRA accepted the decommissioning of arms, and are now engaged in negotiations for a solution to their grievances, which also included discrimination because they were Roman Catholics.

Another abominable grievance of the Tamils is that they have to pay extortionate and highly regressive taxes to the LTTE. No matter what a person’s level of revenue, he has got to pay the tax arbitrarily imposed on him under pain of death. Take for instance a bicycle repair man in the wilds of Vanni. On a good day, if he is lucky, his maximum earnings would be between three to five hundred rupees. From this meagre earning he has to pay a levy to the LTTE. With what is left he is unable to buy anything substantial to feed his family. This is because the prices of everything essential has escalated due to taxes imposed on them by the LTTE.

Emaciated without proper food, it a wonder that he survives. He is probably rescued by the food items sent by the government and aid agencies. His survival is certainly not due to the benevolence of the LTTE, but due to the concern of the Government which still accepts him as a citizen of this country and therefore entitled to be helped.

Who is responsible for this destitution and near starvation of the Tamils in the North and the East? It is the LTTE. The top echelons of the LTTE live sumptuously in spacious and well kitted out houses as evidenced by the recently captured Mr. Soronam’s house in Sampur. They also have larders full of all the good food available in the market. In addition, they also arrogate a large proportion of food items sent to the Vanni by the government and the NGOs. Life is miserable and made wretched for the Tamils by the LTTE. This is a grievance every articulate Tamil should gripe about. It is time to stop blaming the Sinhala society.

Here is another grievance of the Tamils because they are Tamils. Tamils businessmen and professionals have got to pay Kappan to the LTTE even if they are non-resident in the Vanni. If they do not or refuse to pay the imposition, they are abducted and a ransom is extracted or the victim is killed.

It is now alleged that other Tamil racketeers have got into this lucrative business of ransom money. This appaling situation prevails because of the omerta (silence) of the victims themselves. They have chosen to suffer this iniquity in silence and pay up whatever is demanded of them. If all of them came out of their self imposed closets and announced to the world that they have been victimised hitherto, and now refused to be intimidated any longer, and that they would co-operate with the CID, then the perpetrators of this crime would run for cover and soon face extinction.

The Tamil politicians have cited these abductions as violations of Human Rights. Indeed they are. But who is responsible for this situation? First and foremost, it is the LTTE and other Tamil villains. The victims too should shoulder part of the blame for their non-co-operation with the police. The police will remain helpless so long as information on the extortionists is denied to them.

Another grievance of the Tamils in the LTTE’s bandit country is the complete absence of any kind of human freedom available in the rest of the country. They have no freedom of speech. Tamil newspapers are burnt and Tamil journalists are murdered in turn by the LTTE and other Tamil gangsters. Note the Tamil newspapers are available in plenty in the rest of the country and the Tamil journalists ply their trade without any hindrance from the Sinhalese.

Some of them are subject to intimidation by the LTTE even in the south of the country. This is the payoff emanating from Ranil’s CFA giving the LTTE permission to do "political work" in the south of the country! If any Tamil spoke even about the appaling conditions of life, they will soon find themselves inviting LTTE bullets through their heads.

In short they have no right to dissent, full uncomplaining compliance with Pirapakaran’s dictatorship is enforced without mercy.

These Tamils have no freedom of association. They cannot found any political party different from that of the LTTE. Those already functioning Tamil parties are existing at great risk Almost every day the members of these parties such as the EPDP, EPRLF, etc. are murdered by the LTTE.

Even to found a trade organisation one needs the consent of the LTTE and its members should be contributors to the LTTE’s funds. Thus many Tamil traders from the Vanni have fled the area or shut up shop unable and unwilling to comply with LTTE’s demands. Who is responsible for this situation? It is the LTTE and not the Sinhalese nor the government of the country.

I have listed the genuine and factual grievances of the Tamils arising from the fact that they are Tamils. They are all grievances imposed on them by the LTTE. The Sinhala and the Muslim society in this country have nothing to do with these grievances. Yet they do not feature among the complaints so often made by the Tamil elite, their NGO and New Leftist friends living in comfort in the salubrious environs of Colombo. To the extent they have ignored these genuine grievances, they stand condemned as hypocrites and remain blacklisted as acolytes of the LTTE.